Tattoo by Mick Squires

I really wanted to get tattooed while I was in Australia and after pinging a few emails back and forth, me and Mick set a date. I told him I wanted a conch on the side of my left hand, and tried to send him as best a reference as I could. This wasn’t a very easy task as most of the images you find of them, is just their shells, after they’ve been killed. I also tried to get my mum to take photos of our conchs…more specifically, Claude, who I wanted to get tattooed. Now as much as I love my mother, taking photos is not one of her strong points. And whilst I understand they aren’t the easiest things to photograph…her pictures were just terrible!

So my time in Australia was coming to an end and only had a few days left. Me and half of International House had been kicked out of our apartments due to miscommunication and a bitch of a manager who fucked up the leasing dates, and everyone had to find other places to stay. Luckily, having the amazing friends I do, Sammy said I could stay with her.
So I have maybe 3 days left? And I decide to look in my diary, I don’t remember why but it was lucky I did, as I realised I had an appointment with Mick the next day! I quickly asked Sammy if she could take me but she had to do something for uni. Luckily Pat said he was free and didn’t mind driving me.

The next day turned into a bit of a rush with us trying to use his satnav to find this street that was in area you couldn’t drive down. We had to park the car and try and find it on foot. We managed to get there pretty much just on time and I looked over the counter and saw Mick was still tattooing someone anyway. I told the receptionist that I was here for my appointment with Mick and she said she’d tell him. I took a seat and waited….and waited…and waited. Pat decided to go and have a look in the shops nearby and still, I waited. I must have been there an hour or so before one of the other artists came and asked me who I was waiting for. I said Mick and she asked if he’d been told. I said the receptionist said she was going to tell him and she said okay. I was then there maybe another 2hours before she looked over and saw me still waiting and went and grabbed him. He said he didn’t know I was here and that he thought I hadn’t showed up :/ He apologised for the misunderstanding and grabbed his sketch book. He started sketching in front of me and with a few minor changes, we were good to go.
Right before we started, he thought it would be a good idea to tell me that he hated hand tattoos and they really hurt….i was just like, thanks then…haha! He did turn out to be kinda right though, they aren’t very pleasant in places, just because it’s so bony but It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting after that comment! He did some beautiful things with the shell and added in little hints of green and purple. He really did a great job and I’d love to get a bigger piece by him sometime in the future.